Ajit Pai on Net Neutrality, 5G, and Why He Wants To 'Clarify' Section 230
The outgoing FCC chairman discusses 'light-touch' regulation and the future of free speech on the internet.
Free Speech
Following Protests, France Retreats on Plan to Censor Filming of Police
Earlier in November, surveillance footage captured officers beating a man for not wearing a mask.
Drone Photography Potentially Protected by First Amendment
So a district court suggests in a challenge to a Texas statute that limits drone photography that "surveil[s]" private property—but that exempts similar surveillance by academics and certain others,
Law Professor vs. Law Blog Commenters Libel Suit Dropped
A company had a trademark canceled in a Trademark Trial & Appeal Board proceeding, based on what the Board described as the company's "delaying tactics, including the willful disregard of Board orders." The TTABlog posted about it, and some commenters criticized the company's lawyer, who sued them for libel.
Kentucky Religious Schools Have First Amendment Right to Reopen, Says Federal Judge
The decision should also support secular private schools having similar rights as well. (Public schools are under control of the state government, and lack First Amendment rights against it.)
Court Strikes Down California Limits on Personalized License Plates "Offensive to Good Taste and Decency"
With talk of QUEER, 69, AF, OG, "guns, weaponry, shooting, or an instrument normally used to inflict harm," and more.
Penguin Random House Employees Broke Down in Tears at Thought of Publishing Jordan Peterson's Next Book
"He is an icon of hate speech and transphobia."
Offensive License Plates Are Free Speech, Court Tells California
Plus: National Labor Relations Board rules against The Federalist, France is getting less free, and more...
UMD Public Policy School Mandating Ideological Statements on Syllabus, Requiring That Class "Materials" and "Discussions" "Respect All Forms of Diversity"
Seems quite inconsistent with basic academic freedom principles.
Overbroad Injunction Used to Try to Vanish Articles About Daughter's Property Lawsuit Against Father
A court order, in Kelly Hyman v. Alex Daoud, on its face seems to command all Internet services to remove material that mentions the daughter (Kelly Hyman), or her husband (retired federal bankruptcy judge Paul Hyman).
First Amendment Generally Protects Speech in the U.S. by Non-U.S.-Citizens/Residents
An interesting, though unsurprising, decision in a case brought by prominent Russian businessmen over the Fusion GPS Steele Dossier.
"Journalism Professors Demand Iowa State University Disband the College Republicans Over Offensive Tweet"
The University rightly responds: "At the core of this demand is a disconnect between the law and First Amendment freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution, and the desire by many in the campus community to punish those whose comments are hurtful to others."
Libel Case Can't Be Litigated with Alleged Libel Sealed
So says the Delaware Court of Chancery: "If the information currently redacted remains so, the public will have no means to understand the dispute MetTel has asked the Court to adjudicate."
Criminal Libel for High School Student to Falsely Write That He'd Had Sex with Teacher
Louisiana is one of about a dozen states that has a criminal libel statute; my sense is that, throughout the country, there are likely about 20-30 criminal libel prosecutions per year.
Christians Trying to Convert Muslims and Jews to Christianity
"So what?." asks David Harsanyi at the National Review, quite correctly.
Biden Transition Team Member's Op-Ed on "Why America Needs a Hate Speech Law"
Richard Stengel published that argument in the Washington Post last year.
Senators Once Again Berate Twitter and Facebook CEOs for Content Decisions They Dislike
But what one side likes, the other side hates. There's no way Twitter and Facebook can appease them both.
Sinatra, Music, the Texas Guitar Army, the First Amendment, and Coronavirus
That's Judge John Sinatra (W.D.N.Y.), holding that a N.Y. restriction on live music was unconstitutional.
Some Thoughts on the Avenatti v. Fox News Libel Lawsuit
Past perfect, libel-proof plaintiffs, substantial truth, “actual malice,” statutes of limitations, and more.
Lawyer Gets Temporary Injunction Against Gripe Site That Says He's a "Fraud," "Cowardly," "Cannot Be Trusted"
But I think the First Amendment prohibits such pretrial injunctions, and in any event the injunction targets opinions and not just false factual assertions.
TikTok Will Outlast Trump
Plus: Homeland Security says this election was "the most secure in American history," Chicago asks residents to stay home again, and more...
L.A. Suburban School District Forbids To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and More in High School Readings
Other excluded books: Huckleberry Finn, The Cay, and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Trump v. CNN Libel Suit Dismissed for Now
The court finds that the Trump campaign didn't offer enough facts suggesting that CNN knew the statement was false (or was likely false); the campaign is allowed to file an amended complaint if it can make more specific allegations.
Gun Restrictions as Analogy for Justifying Speech Restrictions
"The state may restrict a convicted felon's right ... to possess a firearm," so a state may order a civil case defendant to stop saying things online about plaintiff that "severe[ly] emotional distress" that plaintiff.
No Sealing of Case Based on "Defendant['s] … Damaging Assertions Against Plaintiffs"
"Plaintiffs decided to file a publicly available case and then ask the Court to protect them because defendant might say horrible things about them throughout the course of this litigation.... But harsh words are not a basis to seal a case, especially where it appears that both sides have no qualms about tearing each other down."
"Seditious Conspiracy" Is Still a Crime
But unlike the Sedition Act of 1798, the federal seditious conspiracy statute doesn't focus on antigovernment speech (such as alleged lies about the government).
Michigan AG's #DetroitLeaks Takedown Demand, and Seditious Libel
The AG is threatening criminal prosecution because the videos allegedly contain "false and misleading information" about Michigan elections' vulnerability to fraud.
First, Sixth Amendments Require Allowing TV Coverage of Derek Chauvin Trial
So holds a Minnesota trial court, because ordinary public access is precluded as a result of the epidemic.
The First Amendment and Mandated Creation of Computer Code
"Plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged that the code they must draft to comply with the Dealer Law communicates substantively with the user of the program" and thus implicates the First Amendment.
Not Libel to Defame a Pseudonymous Chat Group User …
so long as the user's true identity is unknown to the audience, and the pseudonym has no "legally cognizable independent reputation" (as when the pseudonym is used by an author to sell books).
Protests, Roadways, and Liability
(1) Black Lives Matter demonstrations. (2) Trump-fans-vs.-Biden-bus demonstrations.
In Texas, Wearing the Wrong Thing to the Polls Could Land You in Jail
A new lawsuit says the state's electioneering statutes violate the First Amendment.
Supreme Court Sends DeRay Mckesson Black Lives Matter Protest Case Down to the Louisiana Supreme Court
The Court avoids, at least for now, the First Amendment question by instructing the Fifth Circuit to ask the Louisiana Supreme Court to decide whether Louisiana state law even allows negligence liability in the case.
